"He heee, I just found 2 middle-of-the-roaders Watch out for the traffic, you are going to get run over"
Simply being on one side or another is never the real answer. Extremists may have a lot of buddies to drink beer with, but rather than solving problems, they simply wind up throwing mud at each other instead of moving forward.
"Welp, a green planet is all well and good, except when confronted with the fact that California is out of energy right now, and looking at very serious rate hikes"
I guess if that is where you insist on living, you're going to have to deal with it. I'm not sure why with the incredible amount of sunshine that state gets, and the winds coming in off of the Pacific, that they haven't explored more alternative energy sources like windmills and solar power. If you can afford to pay $300,000 for a 2 bedroom house, you ought to be able to cough up a couple thousand more for a windmill or a solar collector to help offset your energy needs.
Since that would be cheaper to a home owner than buying all their power for electricity and heating water, etc., how about a program that looks into lower interest rates, higher qualification ratios (to help offset the cost of alternative energy avenues) or other incentives to homebuyers who implement these technologies?
"In short, Bush was not exactly out in left field when he said it's not the best time to implement further restrictions."
Bush's main problem is that the ONLY policies he's following in regard to energy fall solely on the "supply side" of things. He looks for quick answers now, and doesn't seem to realize that time marches on. Unfortunately, he's got the insight and vision of a grilled cheese sandwich.
"Having said that, Dubya SCARES THE HELL OUT OF ME the russians are patrolling with Bears again, started on George W's inauguration day. Now this thing in china with them ramming one of our spy planes, not to mention the escalating violence in the middle east. And whos in Charge? George W."
I am serious when I say that I am not trying to start a fight here. Starting a fight here is W-A-Y too easy.
But, I will say that unfortunately, this is a pretty blatant statement that many other world leaders do not respect our current president.
I think it is important that we all keep a clear head at this time. I hope Mr. Bush's handlers will teach him a little diplomacy, and coach him in ways that will garner him respect from someone else besides Tony Blair.
Managing world politics is not like managing an oil field. You don't just pull up in a shiny 4WD pick-up, get out, and yell at everyone around you, telling them you're going to kick their bellybutton if they don't do what you want them to.
You tell everybody everything that they know, but you don't tell them everything YOU know. Sometimes it may seem like you're doing one thing, but you're really accomplishing another.
Europeans, Asians, Indians, and every other country on Earth older than 225 years, have been doing it this way for centuries untold.
For someone who's supposedly got the best cabinet in the world, they are scaring the toejam out of me. I expected a hell of a lot more out of Cheney & Co.
Let's just write this off as "the rookie jitters", and hope he gets a little calmed down, and starts receiving respect instead of disdain from other world leaders, especially those who don't wave his flag, just because he's the American President.
You have to give respect to get it, and "everyone's nemesis" Clinton showed that as long as you give respect, you don't have to back down, or start a nuclear war. A lot of really nasty people in the world may have hated Clinton, but they didn't think he was a fool.
It's time for Bush's cabinet to step up, and start giving him "worldly" advice, instead of trying to act like the world is a construction site, and he's the foreman.
This is a time where, if it occured in Clinton's administration (which it wouldn't have, because he had more respect on a world-wide basis), Conservatives would have started roasting him.
When the chips were down, they would attack him in front of the world. Unfortunately, this backfired for them, and instead of being respected by the world, they were thought of as opportunist jackals, and dismissed as being people who really had nothing of value to say.
And actually, what's going on right now may be a subconscious spill-over from those events.
I'm getting a little nervous about all this stuff too. For me, I propose something entirely different than what we've been doing for the last eight years.
Instead of lambasting this president, let's try and guide him.
Instead of hurling insults, let's try throwing ideas at him instead.
I think later on today I'll e-mail the White House. I'll let Mr. Bush know I totally disagree with about everything he stands for, but that I think at this juncture in our history, it is important that we stand together as Americans, and that he in turn should think carefully before he speaks and acts.
It's a big world out there. They've been doing this toejam a lot longer than we have.
If we speak our minds intelligently to our president, and keep our infighting to ourselves instead of serving it up on the World Platter, maybe we can get through this with as little damage to our country as possible.
I never thought I'd feel this way, but with the way things are going right now, I think it's time to put down our slingshots and barbed instruments, and try solidarity, clarity, and intelligence for a change.
Mk
